White Oleanders
by The Lady Massacre
Summary: A story between Sakura and Ino based on the movie, White Oleander. Sakura is sort of in Astrid's position, and Ino in Ingrid's. It's not much, and if it has a plotline, I cant find it. But I enjoyed writing it. A bit of Yuri. M to be safe.


"Prison suits me," she said. "I do well here. Kill or be killed. Everyone knows that."

Ino said that, she's my best friend. She sits leisurely in the metal chair, the phone dangling by her ear. Her normally manicured hand, french, as always, is covered in dirt, the fake nails peeling from the natural ones. I was surprised she hadn't picked them off yet- she hated it when everything about her was less than perfect. She was wearing orange, a color that reminded me of Naruto, my best guy friend. He was obsessed with the color. I sighed, looking through the glass that separated us and how I just wished I could break it- to either join her or to take her away, but I knew that wasn't possible.

I pursed my lips, turning away. Memories poured over my eyes like blood, the thick metallic smell invading my senses and all sense of consensus. Sometimes I wondered how she could have done what she did to even get into prison, but I knew it was within her capabilities. She had been a dear friend once, when we were children laughing and crying together, going off on adventures Ino dreamed up. She was a poet, with a vast imagination of the cruelest nature. We were still friends, in reality. But the innocence of her mind, and to an extent, even mine, was gone. If I think about it, it was never really there, because she had taken it from me.

Ino had once been my only connection to what would be called reality. At a young age I was orphaned, and Ino had decided to take me under her wing. We were both alone in the world, though she never told me what had happened to her parents. I only assumed what had happened, and if I asked, she would brush it off and would refuse to speak to me for hours. I was so alone, nearly going insane. I would talk to another persona in my mind, though sometimes I said things out loud, and Ino never commented on it. She made things seem less bleak in my world. She's the sun that shines on in my days, regardless of storms and rather crappy weather.

"Come now," she smiled sumptuously, seducing and vindictive with every move she made. She was a beautiful evil, though I hadn't always thought that. Once, I had simply believed her to be beautiful. "Don't be sad. It won't be long until I'm out of here. We can be together again soon enough. There are people ready to defend me and my case. It won't be too long." Too long. How long was too long? A month? A year? Three? I wasn't sure, and I dreaded the answer.

"Oh, and before I forget, I've taken on a lover here, I hope you don't mind." She smiles at me, that one smile that always makes me melt and do whatever she wants. She wants me to forgive her. Another lover. I can't imagine it, and she tells me as if we were talking about the weather. Somehow, I'm not surprised. Ino was beautiful, but deadly. A combination that was desirable among her peers. She wouldn't break, and she could take whatever they dished out at her. I close my eyes, willing myself not to imagine her soft hands exploring my body, and then, it turns to be someone else. Someone else to please her while she's there. It's meaningless, she tells me, but it doesn't matter. It still hurts.

"Sa-ku-ra," she sings, pouting. I still don't open my eyes. "Come on, don't be mad at me. I think you'd like her, actually. She's a tough gal, but she can be a bit girly too. Her name is Ten-Ten." She talks about her like she talks about a pet dog, but with a bit more affection. To her, Ten-Ten is just another toy, another thing to amuse her when she is bored. Ten-Ten will fall for her in a few weeks, possibly days. She won't be able to get enough of her. It's how I feel. But it makes me wonder. Does she ever talk about me like that?

"Don't," I began, "worry. I understand, I'll be fine." It goes unsaid she won't let me take on another lover as well. I'm hers. I'll always be hers. It's something I can't help, and she knows it, uses it. She'd know, anyway, if I did. I've never been a good liar- and if she knew, she'd be mad at me. It sounds childish, but it's one of my greatest fears. I can't bare it when she refuses to speak to me.

It's time to go now, the time is up. I hang up the phone as Ino does, and I watch her as she stands and is handcuffed. She is led to a door, but looks back at me and sends me a kiss and a wink. I feel myself blush and turn away, which makes her laugh. I can't hear it, but I know she is. I stand and leave, heading toward my car. My movements are mechanical. I get in, I start it, and I leave. I just drive home. There isn't anything going on in my head- I couldn't think. When I got home, it was to my rented apartment. I was barely making enough money as a waitress to afford it, and there were few belongings in it. Ino was a poet, an artist with words. She had material things, but she barely spent enough time at home to display any of them. She wasn't into fashion, either. She preferred the natural look,white kimonos, or even skirts and thin white blouses. She never wore a bra, her breasts were always perky anyway. Her long flowing hair is woven from gold, framing her face and cascading to the curve of her back, her face and complexion radiating like the sun. Her eyes were as blue a the sky on a cloudless day. She was beautiful.

As for me, I had to have layers of makeup to ever match her loveliness, but I could never achieve that sort of beauty. She was natural, the real thing, and I was only an imitation. I have short hair, pink, just brushing against my shoulders. My eyes are green, but pale. They didn't shine like Ino's. How can they, when I am not even happy? Ino had the curves of a real woman, and I, I was skinny, and flat-chested. Me? I was undesirable, but, Ino, she would always be lusted after.

I suppose I am used to it where it doesn't truly surprise me anymore. Ino would always take on lovers over the years, and she would announce it at random. One day, I would be her lover, the object of her affections, but then the next day she would take on another and bring them home, and I would have to sleep on the couch, hear their soft moans, whispers and giggles. It was torture, but at least I wouldn't have to suffer through it here. I close my eyes and sigh, leaning against the wall. It didn't surprise me now, but it always, _always, _hurt.

You might be wondering why I would even put up with it. I'm not strong like her. I wish I was, but I'm not. I'm younger than her- she's twenty six, when I'm only twenty two. I've always been this way, meek and inferior compared to her. I can't bare to lose her. She's my best friend, my love and my life. The one constant thing, always supporting, loving. No, not loving. I laugh. She's anything but loving. She's a cruel temptress, a succubus lusting for sex and sweat. Sometimes I think she loves me. But then there are times when I know she doesn't.

Maybe... Maybe if I told you how it was, how close we were, when we were only children you'd understand. You're probably even wondering why she is in prison. I'll get to that, I promise you, but to understand her nature we have to go back to the very beginning. When I first met Ino Yamanaka.

**.::.**

The day was sunny, but it might as well have been rainy for all I cared. I stared at my burning house as the firemen swarmed it, trying to calm it down. I could hear the echo of my parent's screams in my ears, but they were already dead. The fire was to large for the firemen to go in and try to rescue anyone inside, and I already knew it was too late for them. A fireman asked if I had any relatives, but I didn't. We had lived in Suna, once, but I didn't have relatives there either. So I shook my head and walked off, and no one stopped me. Crowds swarmed around what was once my house, but they payed me no mind. We had just moved in. We knew no one.

I walked off, not really knowing where I was going, but when I arrived I was in a field of flowers, and my feet ached. I don't know how I got there, but I didn't bother wondering. I simply fell to my knees and cried. When she, Ino, arrived, my throat was sore from sobbing and my eyes puffy. Snot ran from my nose and I knew I looked like a nightmare. But that didn't seem to bother her.

"Hey," she said, "what's wrong?" Her voice was as soft and harmonious as it is today, but with a hint of innocence, of purity. It was barely there. I looked up at her, surprised she had spoken to me, even more surprised that she seemed sad.

"My... parents..." I couldn't finish, I just started crying again. But she didn't need me to. She was smart, is smart, she could connect the dots.

"They were in the fire, weren't they?" I nodded. Ino frowned and watched me for a moment. She sat down in front of me and lifted my chin. Her head was tilted, watching me as I sniffed. Then, she smiled, and I thought it was the most beautiful smile in the world.

"Come on, buck up," she said. "It won't do to cry for them. They wont be coming back." It was brutally honest, something I was not prepared to hear, and I started crying again. "But," she said, "I can take care of you. And I will, I promise."

"You... you will?" Ino nodded, smiling brightly. I couldn't help but smile back, though it was timid.

"My name is Ino, by the way. Eleven. What about you?"

"Sakura... seven." Ino stood up and held out her hand. As I introduced myself, I took them, and I would forever be hers.

I grew dependent on her like a child would a mother. I was silent most of the time, I was afraid she was going to leave me. I didn't want her to, I didn't know anyone, I didn't know how to survive. She was teaching me, of course, how to be ruthless because it's how every one would treat you. She introduced me to her friends, they would give her some food for the both of us whenever we couldn't steal any. I noticed most of them were guys, and I assumed they had crushes on her. I couldn't blame them.

We were vikings, she liked to say. We were strong, ruthless, depending on no one. Beautiful. But how could I be a viking when I depended on her? How could I be a viking when I wasn't beautiful?

She didn't let me cry anymore, she kept me busy doing different tasks because they would keep me busy. She said that if I cried, I was showing a weakness that they, our enemies, could expose. If they exposed us, Ino would leave me, or at least I thought she would. I did my best to please her in whatever way I could, I wanted to show I was worth her efforts and time.

Of course, even though I depended on her, a fact she knew and liked to play with, she would leave for some time. I don't know where she went or what she did, but I did know she would have the heavy smell of alcohol on her breath when she did return, and it was always late at night. We didn't have a home, really, we were both homeless. She never told me what happened to her parents, and after I asked for the first time I refused to ask again. I was too afraid.

During those nights I would always stay up and wait for her. We lived in the fields. We would stay up and wash whatever clothes we had in a nearby stream, and though I only the clothes on my back, Ino would give me what clothes were to small for her. As I grew older, she was around less often, but she would always come back, and I would hold on to her because she was my best and only friend. Her friends were her friends- they didn't speak to me much, and they never made an effort to get to know me. As far as they were concerned, I was Ino's worshiper. Which, I suppose is an accurate representation of me. I was her worshiper. I yearned to be like her, to be the only one she wanted.

I loved her. Even at a young age, I did. I never imagined myself to be a lesbian, because I didn't love her because of her body. She was beautiful, an angel fallen from heaven, but it wasn't about that. I loved her because she cared for me. She took care of me. She was all I had.

On my fourteenth birthday is when I first slept with her. She had kissed me before, it was because she had been drunk, but she was completely sober then. It had been magical, indescribable. I slept next to her, my smaller frame curved next to hers. My head was leaning against her chest, and her arm was wrapped around me, holding me close. That was when I truly fell in love with her. She was asleep, and I wasn't. I was tired from our activities, but I was too afraid to close my eyes, because in the next moment, she might be gone.

I went to school because it was simply something to do. I made good grades, and even made a friend. Naruto. He was such a good guy, if slightly annoying. He introduced me to his own best friend, Sasuke, who was also his rival. Sasuke didn't talk much, but the two of them were always going at it. I met them in elementary school, I had been crying because I thought Ino was leaving me for good. But Naruto, he had immediately walked up to me and cheered me up. From then on we were inseparable. I was less dependent on Ino, but I still craved her company and her attentions.

I went to high school and I was in pretty much the same classes as Naruto and Sasuke. Ino has already graduated, she has a job and I knew it was because of me. If it wasn't for me she would be of somewhere magical, where mundane society wouldn't hold her down. She didn't need money to get whatever she wanted. But she swore she would take care of me. Ino kept her word no matter what. She told me so. We lived in a small apartment, not in the slums of town, but middle-class. There was a pool we would swim in all the time, always at night so we could watch the stars.

But then, when I was fifteen she left. I don't know where she went. She came back, but she didn't tell me. Still, the two years I was alone, I lived with Sasuke. His mother insisted upon it, though his father wasn't too friendly, and his brother... Itachi, he was a bit too friendly. Well, I wouldn't say that. Itachi cared for me in a way that was different from Ino. He cared for my well being, my interests, what I planned on doing when I was older. Before I didn't really think of what I was going to do with my life. I couldn't imagine one without Ino, to tell the truth. Itachi listened to me when I talked about my past with her, he didn't judge me or condemn me, but he made me realize that there was a life apart from her, and that I should start thinking about what I was going to do with it.

So I did. I decided to become a nurse. I had always wanted to take care of people, I studied and studied to get into the Health Academy at school, and Itachi, he always helped me. He was a busy person, however, already working because he had graduated from college at thirteen. He was a child prodigy. I could never dream of being as intelligent as him, but Itachi always said that I was darn close, smarter than even Sasuke. Personally, though, I didn't think that was too hard to achieve.

I lived with them and I performed chores to earn my keep, but I didn't mind. It made me happy to be there. I realized that, with Ino, I wasn't truly happy. I was miserable, always wondering when she would leave me next. It hurt that she had left me, not even leaving a note. I couldn't afford to pay for the apartment on my own, and she knew that. Still, she had left.

As my sixteenth birthday neared, Itachi had confessed his attachment to me. I think he loved me, but I knew Itachi, he wasn't one for words, much less sentiments. I had laughed and cried, because I loved him too. He made me happy, like I belonged somewhere. He understood me. Ino didn't. She never had. She cared for me, but she didn't know my favorite color, or my favorite food. She didn't know what style I liked or what I planned to do with my life. I was just there. I slept with Itachi then, and it was a different from when I would sleep with Ino. It felt wonderful, more so than with Ino. I had never been happier.

But then Ino returned. I was torn between Itachi and Ino, but they both knew who I would choose in the end. So did I. So I said my goodbyes to the Uchiha family, and I left. Itachi wouldn't see me that day.

We moved to the other side of town and I would occasionally see Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke hadn't forgiven me for breaking his brother's heart, and I couldn't blame him, for I had hardly forgiven myself.

**.::.**

We lived together for years, sometimes I would be her lover, and then, other days, I wouldn't be. My heart has been shattered and I truly believe it was payment for breaking Itachi's. I wondered when Ino's day would come, for she had so ingrained her very being into me that I hardly knew where I ended and she began. But then, that day came.

She met a man. He wasn't handsome. He was lazy, and he hardly cared. Ino barely gave him the time of day. But then they spent more and more time together, and I spent more time in my studies to get into medical school. Even though I broke Itachi's heart, I was determined to make him proud of me, to make myself proud. In any case, as she spent more time with him, I could tell she was slowly slipping, her feet balancing on a slippery line that has defined all she has ever known. She was falling in love with him, I knew it, deep down in my heart. I was hurt, but I could do nothing about it. She talked about him like a woman would speak of her lover, a fiance, a husband. A teenager, speaking of her newest boyfriend. Of their perfection. I knew he wasn't perfect. Ino knew that too. Still, she loved him, just as I had loved her.

They spent a year and a half together, and Ino thought he might propose. She was so looking forward to it. But he didn't. He stopped coming around. Stopped visiting. He stopped sending her daisies, her favorite flower, and he stopped calling her. She thought something was wrong. I knew something was. She believed him ill. I knew he wasn't.

So one day, she went out. I was too busy studying to notice the time frame of her lateness, but I do know I had gone through two books. When she came back, she was crying. It was an odd sight to see, because Ino never cried.

"He slept with me," she whispered, "he slept with me, then told me to leave. Because he had a date."

I wasn't surprised. The signs were all there.

"So I killed him."

I wasn't surprised about that, either.

Three days later the police came. Ino hadn't said goodbye, but she was strong, beautiful. A viking.

That was two years ago. I had to let go, I have to. I can't handle the pain anymore. I have to let her go, but I can't bare too. I think of all she has done for me, and all she has done against me, I can't truly compare it. Has it been worth it? I dress in something nicer, a floral dress, and go down to the coffee shop. Being out always helps me relieve my stress, for some odd reason. I loved being outdoors. Itachi knew that. So I sat outside in the shade with a coffee and a book in my hand, and I sit there and think.

Has anything she has done for me been worth the pain? No. Someone clears his throat and I look up. It's Itachi. I smile at him, a bit sadly, morose, but he smiles back and sits in front of me. Maybe I can change things. Ino has taught me a lot of things. But I've been dependent on her for far too long. I need to break away.

"How have you been, Itachi?"

And I do.


End file.
